Tuesday, 10 December 2013

How to write
this? It’s not an easy one; realising as I write that to say what I believe to
be going on, in terms of robbery, will be both counter cultural and also put
the backs up of those who think themselves to be ‘scientifically superior’ to
other mortals.

Let me start by saying that what is being taught
educationally, and absorbed without too much question by the general population,
perhaps even unknowingly absorbed, helps us to act in such a way that we are
robbed.

What am I
talking about? Well educationally, there is a strong push that would have us
believe that we are ‘just an animal’ and when we take that on board, it becomes
‘normal’ to act like one and therefore robbery
number one takes place. We are
robbed of what should really be human sexuality and its richness, and taught to
settle for something a lot less valuable, and the robbery does not end there.

Another line
that we are sold educationally is that we are all just part of ‘the great
machine’ and therefore all sexual acts are really just the machine in process. It
makes you wonder why we should take any responsibilities for any action doesn't it. It is just the brain firing neurons
that gives us the reactions; ‘ultimately no meaning’, ‘just part of the machine’,
‘luck’, ‘the accident of nature’, ’somewhat of a bad joke’, or, as they say,
just an add-on of the ‘goldilocks
theory’. Again serious robbery
takes place if your sexuality is only understood like this, even if you have
not thought it through, but are subconsciously acting as if this were the case.

Within our
current culture it is a trend to think that sex is fun, (which it is of course),
and therefore does not need to be taken seriously. It encourages the belief
that ‘if I have lots of one night stands and take precautions then that should
be fine’. Robbery is taking place at this point, and the whole of sexuality
has been devalued, you’re robbed.

In saying
that it does not take into account all the STDs that are on the increase, and
for females, there are even some that do not seem to have very clear symptoms
yet could cause infertility and heartache up the road. Yes we do know that these STDs are there, and
if we look we know that they are on the increase in our society, yet are we
taking this seriously? The statistics suggest that we are not! Robbed again! This is probably, because
we just do not take note.

So are we on
the right track? Is sex just an animalistic or mechanical function... one that
does not really matter? Or are we, by acting in accordance with our cultural
leanings ‘everyone is doing it’, being seriously robbed?

My thesis is
this. Sex is for marriage, and it should
be fun! When it takes place outside of marriage, and in terms of the mechanical
or animalistic ‘fun’ approach for a night out then all sorts of other things
are taking place. Never mind the risk of STDs (according to the statistics
which I quote below). What happens is
quite strange. First of all there is the
creation of what I call ‘brain DVD’s’ which have the power to impinge on future
sexual relationships; often detrimentally.

Then there
is the real robbery, or what I call
the terrible devaluation of sexual relationships. Sex, you see, is much, much more than a
physical act. Interestingly, Biblical
scripture likens the act to the relationship that is created between Christ and
the Church, and pushes it up to this high level. In another part of scripture
it talks about our physical bodies being linked into Christ. Why would we then
like to link that to a prostitute, male or female?

1 Corinthians 6:15
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then
take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

I hope that what you can see is that the level of sexual
relationships is being ratcheted up. It’s not simply a physical act, it’s not
simply a mechanical act, and it’s not simply an animalistic act. Within the act is a high level mystery, it
has eternal symmetry, and it has clever typology built into it. There is spirituality
here that, when sex is treated lightly robbery is taking place. Is it possible
is that sex has a soul element to it?

My
observation is that when used correctly, lovingly and of course with
imagination and fun, sex in permanent, committed relationships has the ability
to draw a couple together in stronger bonds of understanding and development.
It goes beyond the physical act to a soul connection which can be much more
satisfying and exciting. When used wrongly, I note that what frequently happens
is that this act causes division, and often hatred in those who use it that way.
Robbed!

So I am
probably not being very culturally correct or even politically correct, but
what do you think, is robbery taking
place? Are you being robbed? If so, there is a better protection. There is
a better way of believing, there is a better value system, and there is a
better way.

TheGoldilocks principle states that something must fall
within certain margins, as opposed to reaching extremes. When the effects of
the principle are observed, it is known as theGoldilocks
effect.

The thesis is this: the Universe as
we know it shows a multitude of features that makes it ideal for life. As such
is mentioned the structure of atoms and
molecules; the force of gravity, which is neither too great nor too small; the
quantities of vital elements like oxygen and carbon, which are found in exactly
the right amounts; the ready combination of oxygen and hydrogen to make water
with its unique properties, and several others. It looks, almost as if the
Universe had been especially designed for life. At this point there should be
an interruption to ask if that was not then the logical assumption to make.
Perhaps it had indeed been designed? The reply from the clever scientists
though is: “Ah, no,” “You cannot allow the idea of a Designer into your
thinking, because that is unscientific. Also, it merely moves the problem of
the Universe back a stage. After all, who designed the Designer?”

*2 STD statistics from Avert

. Over the
past decade there has been a substantial increase in diagnoses of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs) in the UK, particularly among young
people. Since 1999 the number of annual cases of chlamydia has more than doubled. In 2008 there
were 123,018 new diagnoses of chlamydia in GUM (genitourinary medicine) clinics
– a record number. Chlamydia can have serious side effects, one of which is
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), which can lead to infertility in women.
Chlamydia can have no symptoms and therefore many people do not come forward
for testing, even though the infection can be easily diagnosed and effectively
treated. Cases of gonorrhea rose steadily from 1999 the number
of diagnoses of syphilis has risen substantially in the past
decade in the UK. In 2008 there were 11 times the number of primary and
secondary diagnoses in GUM clinics, than 1999. This rise has been attributed to
a number of local outbreaks, the largest of which was in London between 2001
and 2004.10 During 2008, 7,220 people were
diagnosed with HIV in the UK.11 Although this represents a decline
from the previous three years, the number of new diagnoses has more than
doubled since 1999. Between 2005 and 2006 the largest increases in new
diagnoses of genital herpes were among men aged 35-44 (15%) and
45-64 (18%) and among women aged 16-19 (16%) and 20-24 (11%).7 London had the highest rates of
diagnoses per 100,000 population, followed by the North West, and Yorkshire and
the Humber. In 2008 a record number of people (28,957) were diagnosed with
genital herpes in GUM clinics in the UK.8 Just over 60 percent of these
diagnoses were among women. Source: http://www.avert.org/std-statistics-uk.htm

Saturday, 19 October 2013

We need to
remember that Education was originally not a state or secular idea but rather
one that those who are followers of Jesus thought of. The invention of the so called Sunday school
(1736 to 1811) was by Robert Rakes whose statute stands in such places as
Victoria Embankment in London, Gloucester Town Centre and Queens Park Toronto
On. Canada.

I say so
called Sunday school because this was not as we often think of it today. What
Robert Rakes was really doing was seeking to educate young people to read and
write and do maths, and because Sunday was the only day that children in those
days did not work it was, of course, called Sunday school.

By 1831, Sunday schools in Great Britain were teaching
weekly 1,250,000 children, approximately 25 per cent of the population. One need to remember that there was at this
time no such thing as ‘state education’ the gradual take over by the state
probably began In August 1833,
when Parliamentvoted to provide sums of money
each year for the construction of schools for poor children, the first time the
state had become involved with education in England and Wales. A meeting inManchesterin 1837, chaired byMark Philips, led to the creation of theLancashire Public Schools'
Association. The association proposed that non-denominational
schools should be funded from localtaxes.

What I am
saying is that education was the prerogative and the initiative of people of
faith long before the state thought of universal education. Gradually the state takes over these things but
does it always do a better job?

I am glad
that there is education for all but I am not convinced that it carries the
value system and character development that I would want for children and hope
you do too. Interestingly Martin Luther
of Reformation fame in (1483 to 1546) yes way back then said of public schools "I am afraid that the schools will prove
the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy
Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth". Not much has
change has it?

Raison d'être

So why have I
implemented a Christian School in North London, some 30 plus years ago, not by
myself of course but with the help of so many other ‘believers’ . Really because of the opinions of people like
Martin Luther, and of course other more modern proponents, and because I know
that we have, as parents, real concern that we protect our children from all
sorts of thing as they grow up. Things like not letting them cross the road without
holding our hand, not letting them go out on their own at too young an age, in
other words we protect them, and why not?
Why not also protect what is put into their heads? Why not protect the
knowledge element? Is this not sensibly for the children we care about and love?
Sometimes parents say things to me like, “well our children need to know the
real world; the good, the bad and the ugly, they need to know what is evil as
well as what is good, they will get that in school”. For sure they will, but I cannot help
thinking about what the Bible says about such things. it says things like ‘but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simpleconcerning evil’.
Romans 6:19, or what the devil said to those in the Garden which sound much the
same to me as we need to understand good and evil;
‘For God knows that in the day you eat of
it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing goodandevil.’ Funny ending to
the story though isn’t there? Genesis 3:4 - 6.

Disappointment

At the beginning of opening a Christian School in
North London, as there were very few such things in those days, at least the
kind we were operating, I got invited to all sorts of places in the UK to talk
about education. Many, who came to such
talks, usually put on by local church groups were people involved in education
or interested enough and broad minded enough to look at another way of ‘doing’
education. After many such events, and I
did do many, I got used to the standard questions, questions like: “Are you
just running a hot house?” My answer would be “well you usually keep your
flowers that you want to grow well in a hot house until you know they are hardy
enough to survive outside”! Or “Are you not brain washing the children”, I am
careful not to say that some brains need washing, however I do think it amazing
that we think that any education system does not have an agenda and is putting
what ‘they think’ into children’s heads for good or evil, anyone who thinks
that is not happening is so naive that its frightening.

However, on my travels the greatest disappointment
came as I talked with those who would say that they were followers of Jesus and
that knowing God was the most importing thing in all of life. In that, my
conclusion was that for all the words about the importance of knowing God, if
push came to shove and it was a choice of knowing God or going to university
then the university won every time. I do
not think that is the choice as I will demonstrate just now, however to think
it may be the choice is somewhat frightening when you hear what people confess
about the importance of knowing God.

I supposed that disappointment is sort of tinged
with the story that Jesus told as recorded in Luke 14: 16 it’s the story of the
great party, probably the best party, but those who were at the top of the
invitation list found good reason not to come.
One had got married, another had bought land, and still another had
bought a new car, sorry yoke of oxen. So
they could not come, university was a better option, sorry again, my slip they
had good reasons not to take up the offer to come to the great party and so the
master said…”Then the master of the house said in wrath to his servant, Go
quickly into the[f]great
streets and the small streets of the city and bring in here the poor and the
disabled and the blind and the lame”.
Maybe those who are not at the top of the list can be persuaded to see
the advantages, and I have to say my experience so far is that they do. Those who do not claim to be followers of
Jesus, my Muslim friends for example, seem too often be more aware of what is
on offer than those who should know.

But is the university impossible to
such as go to a Christian School

Well actually in the UK and lots of Europe too, know. In fact in 2010, 9 students left our school, when I say left what I
mean is that they had reached full school leaving age, I of course am not
counting leavers who left mid education because they move area or changed to
another school or things like that these are the student that one would count
because they are completers.

But let me
show you what the full age students left with.

First those 2010 9 students:

A =
foundation ICCE certification, went on to work as an Estate agent after college

D= left with
Foundation ICCE certification went on to an access course on to university

E=
intermediate ICCE went to Kingston university to study Accounts degree

F= General
ICCE certificate, went on to take level 3 NVQ CCLD and work with children

G = General
ICCE certificate, went on to be a home maker

H= OCR basic
certificate went on to a college course

I= General
ICCE certificate then did access course studying English Now at London
university doing a degree in English

Then in 2011 we had 6 student
complete:

J= General
ICCE certificate, went on to Music college now taking a degree course there

K =
Foundation ICCE certificate, went on to do Btec in IT

L= General
ICCE certificate, went on to do a degree in Photography

M= Advanced
ICCE certificate, went on to Brunel university to study medicine

N=
Foundation ICCE certificate, went on to do Btec in IT

O= General
ICCE certificate, went on to complete a Diploma in Music

So there are
our leavers for the last two years what do you think? You cannot go to university from here, well
yes of course you can but that is not my point!

Here are some comments from some of
the students who have left us:

I asked one
student how his first year at Canterbury University had gone.

He
responded, “I missed my London friends but the studies were fine.”

I asked him
for his opinion of our school system; here are some of his comments.

“One of my
uni modules is accounting, I had already done that subject for my Intermediate
exam with International Certificate of Christian Education (ICCE), so of course
I had that down as one of my options from the advanced level course. However, when
I saw the stuff at University I had to laugh and I said I wish my school
studies had been this easy!”

I asked him
if there was anything else he had noticed about his uni studies.

He said,
“The Algebra, as with accounts, I wish that the school stuff had been as easy as
the university material.”

His final
comment was, “When you have been to a school using the ACE system a fundamental
element that you learn is how to manage your study time and how to complete
work within a given period. I am finding that my stuff gets done whereas lots
of other students seem to have problems completing work and bringing it in on
time. We all have the same amount of
time, and I think some of them are possibly brighter than me, but what they
lack is the discipline that has been put into me over the years to complete the
work on time.”

I also had
the chance to talk with one of the lads who had completed his General
Certificate at ICCE level, and asked him how his college studies were
progressing. “Great!” he said, “but what is funny is how the other students
don’t seem to be able to complete work on time, I have just handed in one of my
first essays, the lecturer said 1,000
words, I was about 400 over so I went to him and asked how critical the word count
was?”

“Oh” he
replied, “I only ask for 1,000 as most of the students cannot get anywhere near
that number, I am happy with anything up to 2000 words, but I would be
surprised if many can even achieve 800.”

I asked him
if he had made any other observations since he had left school.

He said, “A
friend asked me if I could help her with her GCSE material as she had to take
an exam in Maths, so I said I would come around and try. I was very surprised
at the level, and helped her to complete the work and showed her how to work
out the material. I then asked if I
could take a copy of the paper with me.
She agreed and explained that it was an old exam paper used for
practice. I took it home to my younger
sister, she is just 13 years old, and said can you do this maths? She said, ‘Oh
crumbs, yes of course, I am doing that stuff now.’”

For those
who know anything about the system this girl is on PACE 1083 which according to
ICCE is two units below where we would say a student is who has begun General
certificate work.

There was
another young lady at the New Year’s Eve party who had been to a school using
the ACE system, but not at one of the schools that I run; she is currently
reading English at Liverpool Hope University.
I asked how she had found it, and if anything she had learnt from the
system was useful in on going university studies. Her reply was amusing, “Well,” she said, “I
am the only student in my group who knows how to break down an English language sentence into
its component parts, the whole class were saying, ‘we don’t even understand
what we are being asked to do.’ So I ran
my own tutorial group for my friends.
They asked how I knew how to do this, and I told them that I did it all
when I was quite young in my Christian school, that it was standard
practice. I am just surprised that such
basic things are part of this English course at university.”

Flack or no
flack, the results speak for themselves.
You might say to me, are you trying to sell your system to us? The answer to that is; you bet I am! Even if
you are one of those in the high ways and by ways of life, we have great
possibility for students, both educationally and in terms of life values!

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Those of you
who read my blog will know that for a while now I have been going on about the
difference between coincidences and answers to prayer.

More
recently I have been checking through my memory banks to bring to mind some of those
‘answered prayers’ / ‘coincidences’ that happen to those who pray and follow
Jesus. Looking back, I regret not
keeping mementos of some of those incidents.
Perhaps from now on I will do, however in life you often just say,’
thank you God’ and move on, though I hope I am grateful and really thankful and
have regard for these specific answers.

The memento
I could have kept of the story I am about to tell you, could have been copies
of my bank statements, and even though I didn’t its still, nevertheless, a
great answer to prayer and true.

This answer
to prayer (or coincidence depending on your perspective) took place before UK
decimalisation, so young readers might struggle with the figures, not
understanding the notion of 240 pence making one pound. Anyway, at this time I was living in the
North of England, my salary was the grand total of £8.10s or for younger
readers £8.50p. My wife was the full
time secretary for a local school and earned a grand total of £5.00 per week; to put these amounts into perspective my rent
was £5.10s per week (£5.50p), as you can see there was not a great deal of
financial elbow room, there was very little money left over for frivolities.

Unfortunately
for us we had somehow run up a deficit at the bank to the tune of £31.12s 32d
and the bank unfortunately had allowed us to go overdrawn by this amount
without any permission. Now, however,
they had called me in and wanted their money back. I, of course, had said, yes, I would sort it
out. When I arrived home I told my wife that
I had no idea what to do and that we had no chance of funding the deficit.

My wife
suggested writing them a cheque, explained that would not work as that was
where the money came from in the first place. We agreed that we needed to pray
for God to help us, we needed a £31.12s 32d miracle, and frankly I had no idea
where such a miracle could come from.In these situations, I find, that you
always want to provide God with the answer that you have trusted him, in prayer,
to sort out; I hope you know what I mean.

Later that
week, I had a letter from an old friend, he wrote to me enclosing a cheque made
out to myself and Pauline; the letter went something like this.

As you
know some years ago I had a serious motor accident, it’s taken years for the
insurance company to make a settlement to us, but finally it has come. I wanted at this time to say thank you to
friends who helped me and my wife during this awful time, and so now I have the
financial settlement I thought I would like to send you all a monetary thank you. So enclosed is a cheque. I know you will think that this is a funny
amount £31.12s.32p but just to explain that for you, I had quite a few friends
who helped us at that time so what I have done is taken the amount of our
settlement, deducted 10%, I then divided that 10% between all the friends who
helped me at the time and so that is why it is such a funny thank you amount.

Well of
course my friend wanted to explain his reasoning behind the division of the
thank you money, but what my friend did not know was that that cheque was to
the exact £sd (pounds, shillings and pence for younger readers) amount of my
unofficial overdraft.

When I think
about this, it’s totally mind boggling, how everything came together in such
perfect sync; the accident years before, the insurance company taking its time,
the amount of friends my friend felt had helped them at the time, the long
period of time it took to sort the settlement, that my friend was writing out
the cheques during the week that I was concerned about my overdraft, the prayer
my wife and I prayed that week, and that very week the letter arrived
containing a cheque for the exact amount.

It’s all just coincidence I hear some say, well how about a Father God
who loves his children, knows their need and answers prayer. How about that for an answer?

Tuesday, 6 August 2013

Many years ago, when my children were only 7 and 8 years old;
talking about coincidences was in vogue, it seemed that every other
conversation was about this subject. Then,
as now, I would find that my coincidences’ seemed to come in answer to prayer. With both these elements in mind, I thought I
would tell you a true story.

I am also reminded of when I lived in the North of England, a 14
year old would constantly come and talk to me about eternal things. He was puzzled and sometimes annoyed with my
answers, particularly any that involved prayer and its results. One day he knocked on my door at 36 Wilton
Way, when I answered the door and he
looked at me with great confidence, he said he had dropped in on his way home
from school and had been thinking all day about my so called answers to prayer,
‘so called’ is how young ‘Langys’ described
it. I smiled at his enthusiasm as I looked at him
though the open door, observing his obvious new found confidence. I said, ‘oh and what is the answer then?’ He said with delight, “they’re just
coincidences!” “Well,” I said, “thank you for that, but it seems funny to me that
when I pray I get a coincidence, which seems like an answer to prayer to me.”

Now I am sure that there is a much more complex discussion
needed than what I said to that 14 year old, however, there isn’t the space
here. But I have tried in other places
to discuss this further, what I really
wanted to do this time is to just tell you one of those coincidence stories, and let you make up your own mind.

As I was saying, this is a story about my two young children aged 7 and 8; I had signed
a form to say that they could go on a school trip, the terrible thing was that
today was the day I had to send the money with the children to the school. It was breakfast time, and both girls where looking into my face
imploring me for £5.00 each for the school trip. This was £10.00 which I genuinely did not
have and did not know where to find it from; I was regretting that I had signed
the form in the distant hope that by the time came to pay the money I would have
the required tenner! It hadn’t materialised. What was worse, I now had two strident little girls nagging at
me, demanding to know what I was going
to do about it, and they, let me tell you, were worse than facing the school
authorities or the teacher.

I tried some suggestions, how about if I came and talked to
the teacher. They remonstrated with me; that,
apparently was far too embarrassing, everyone else, so they said, had already
paid! “I tell you what,” I said humbly,
“I will come and see the school secretary, perhaps I can pay a little off each
week.” That, it seemed, to the two
little girls, was an even worse idea, loud cries of, “oh Dad how could you!” Where echoing throughout our breakfast time.

Breakfast now over, and
the time for them to leave for school had arrived. We stood ready to go, with the girls still
firing off angry comments at me. I interrupted them as they stood there, angry
and forlorn, coats and scarves on, school bags on their shoulders, faced with
telling the teacher they had no money and could not go on the trip. I said, “Why don’t we stop right now, pray
and ask God to do something as I really don’t know what else to do as you obviously
don’t like my suggestions.” They
reluctantly agreed. We bowed our heads
and I explained to the Father that I did not have £10.00 even though I had said
I would pay £10.00 for the children’s school trip, and I said, “I don’t know
what to do for my children, so will you please, please help me!” I think you can see that my prayer was
heartfelt, whatever the children’s position was.

So that the discussion did not re-start, I immediately said,
“Okay let’s get to school!” I opened our
kitchen door to walk through our side entrance to our front door. We still live in the same house and it’s a
bit strange in that we have two front doors, the main door is accessed through
a corridor. When it’s blustery, this corridor turns into a wind tunnel. It was one of those windy November days, and
as I opened the door a gush of powerful wind blew in, bringing with it all the
leaves of the neighbourhood. I didn’t go out, instead I moved the children back out of the way and
asked my wife for a dust pan and brush, deciding I needed to get this mess
cleared up before I taking the children to
school.
I began sweeping up the leaves, and to my amazement, and I have to say
wonderment, in the middle of the great pile of leaves was a ten pound note,
swept in by the wind with the leaves.

The children were impressed, I was Impressed we stopped and said, “thank
you Lord!” I don’t know if someone lost
it, or if it was a special delivery from God, however it seemed to me a very,
very immediate answer to prayer. Needless to say, they went on the school trip.

Well I don’t know how well my children remember that
happening all those years ago, but what is your take on the story, another
coincidence or does God answer prayer?

Friday, 5 July 2013

We are so persuaded by the ‘normal’ and what is perceived to
be the right approach that those of us who do it differently always expect to
have to swim upstream, to move against the odds to climb the mountain or
whatever other metaphor you can think of to demonstrate an alternative.

Then to persuade people to join you is difficult; I always
find the story of Moses and the release of the Israelite's from slavery
interesting. The Old Testament gives us
a clue to some of their thinking. They
were all slaves; their next door neighbors were slaves, their friends where
slaves, their wives and children were slaves, slavery was the norm. When you have been brought up like that it’s
very hard to be convinced of ‘freedom’ or for my purpose in what I am saying
about education any other way of doing or thinking. The Old Testament Scriptures tell us that
they were mad with Moses for trying to set them free, what did you have in your
slavery?” was Moses’ question, “well” they responded, “we had Leeks Onions and
Cucumbers”. The problem was they were not
looking for freedom they were looking for bigger onions!

So when people consider putting their children into our
school many of the cultural, the expected, and the ‘norm’ is not there! How many classes do you have they say? We don’t have class rooms, or classes, it’s
an individualised method of education!
What GCSE’s do they take, is often the next question. Well, we don’t do
that either, our students enter the ICCE certification. More problems, all people really want is a
bigger onion!

Does the system work, what does the school deliver, should
be the next question, or from my point of view maybe the first question. We are interested as an education
establishment in not only good education for our students but also good
character development. We want them to
know God, we want them to become leaders in whatever area of life they end up
in, and we want them to become the best that they can. So the big question should be do we succeed
in those aims. Not always, but let me
tell you about our recent school leavers.
At the moment the school is around 40 students and growing, so I thought
what I would do is look at the last two year’s leavers and tell you our results
hoping that will help you to assess us and decided if we are successful or not?

So in 2010 9 students left our school, when I say left what
I mean is that they had reached full school leaving age, I of course am not
counting leavers who left mid education because they move area or changed to
another school or things like that these are the student that one would count
because they are completers. Incidentally,
in 2010 only one student left without gaining some paper qualification. But let me show you what the full age
students left with.

First those 2010 9
students:

A = foundation ICCE certification, went on to work as an
Estate agent after college

E= intermediate ICCE went to Kingston university to study
Accounts degree

F= General ICCE certificate, went on to take level 3 NVQ
CCLD and work with children

G = General ICCE certificate, went on to be a home maker

H= OCR basic certificate went on to a college course

I= General ICCE certificate then did access course studying
English Now at London university doing a degree in English

Then in 201l we had 6
student complete:

J= General ICCE certificate, went on to Music college now
taking a degree course there

K = Foundation ICCE certificate, went on to do Btec in IT

L= General ICCE certificate, went on to do a degree in Photography

M= Advanced ICCE certificate, went on to Brunel university
to study medicine

N= Foundation ICCE certificate, went on to do Btec in IT

O= General ICCE certificate, went on to complete a Diploma
in Music

So there are our leavers for the last two years what do you
think? Does it work?

Here are some comments from some of the students who have
left us:

I asked one student how his first year at Canterbury
University had gone.

He responded, “I missed my London friends but the studies
were fine.”

I asked him for his opinion of our school system; here are
some of his comments.

“One of my uni modules is accounting, I had already done
that subject for my Intermediate exam with International Certificate of
Christian Education (ICCE), so of course I had that down as one of my options
from the advanced level course. However, when I saw the stuff at University I had to laugh
and I said I wish my school studies had been this easy!”

I asked him if there was anything else he had noticed about
his uni studies.

He said, “The Algebra, as with accounts, I wish that the
school stuff had been as easy as the university material.”

His final comment was, “When you have been to a school using
the ACE system a fundamental element that you learn is how to manage your study
time and how to complete work within a given period. I am finding that my stuff
gets done whereas lots of other students seem to have problems completing work
and bringing it in on time. We all have
the same amount of time, and I think some of them are possibly brighter than
me, but what they lack is the discipline that has been put into me over the
years to complete the work on time.”

I also had the chance to talk with one of the lads who had
completed his General Certificate at ICCE level, and asked him how his college
studies were progressing. “Great!” he said, “but what is funny is how the other
students don’t seem to be able to complete work on time, I have just handed in
one of my first essays, the lecturer
said 1,000 words, I was about 400 over so I went to him and asked how critical
the word count was?”

“Oh” he replied, “I only ask for 1,000 as most of the
students cannot get anywhere near that number, I am happy with anything up to
2000 words, but I would be surprised if many can even achieve 800.”

I asked him if he had made any other observations since he
had left school.

He said, “A friend asked me if I could help her with her
GCSE material as she had to take an exam in Maths, so I said I would come
around and try. I was very surprised at the level, and helped her to complete
the work and showed her how to work out the material. I then asked if I could take a copy of the
paper with me. She agreed and explained
that it was an old exam paper used for practice. I took it home to my younger sister, she is
just 13 years old, and said can you do this maths? She said, ‘Oh crumbs, yes of
course, I am doing that stuff now.’”

For those who know anything about the system this girl is on
PACE 1083 which according to ICCE is two units below where we would say a
student is who has begun General certificate work.

There was another young lady at the New Year’s Eve party who
had been to a school using the ACE system, but not at one of the schools that I
run; she is currently reading English at Liverpool Hope University. I asked how she had found it, and if anything
she had learnt from the system was useful in ongoing university studies. Her reply was amusing, “Well,” she said, “I
am the only student in my group who knows how to break down an English language sentence into
its component parts, the whole class were saying, ‘we don’t even understand
what we are being asked to do.’ So I ran
my own tutorial group for my friends.
They asked how I knew how to do this, and I told them that I did it all
when I was quite young in my Christian school, that it was standard
practice. I am just surprised that such
basic things are part of this English course at university.”

Flack or no flack, the results speak for themselves. You might say to me, are you trying to sell
your system to us? The answer to that
is; you bet I am!

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

I just thought you might find it interesting to know a
little more about the Blog you read.

Why write a BLOG, and I guess that people do it for all
sorts of reason, to tell friends, to advertise their wares, to just put their
thought out there. I guess for some
people it’s almost therapeutic.

But for me, well yes I would like to put my ware out there,
I have six books I would like you to read, but that’s writing as well isn’t
it. I guess the real reason for writing
is that I want to see change in certain things.
I also think that I would like to use the words to make the world a
better place. I also actually like to introduce lots of people to ‘the Word’
because I know having met the Word, that it changes life, our outlook, our
culture perspective, and our value stem in fact everything for the better.

The other thing that I though you would like to know is who
reads this Blog, that is quite fascinating to me, I am sure you know that these
days with the internet you can track and analyse all sorts of things, and my
Blog is no exception. Here are some of
the interesting data to date, well I think it’s interesting anyway and I hope
you might too. As you would expect as I
live in the UK most readers come from that area of the world, on today
statistics it’s so far to date 1877 of you in the UK have had a look at
it. The next country, which probably
isn't such a surprise as we speak the same language and I have many friends
there, but I suppose what does surprise me is how many, as of today’s date the
stats tell me that in the USA 1409 of
you have taken a peek. Not so far behind
the UK.

What really does surprise me is
country number three and four a long way behind in terms of numbers but hay
welcome all of you from Russia, and South Korea who have had a look Russia is
189 and South Korea is 135. I would
really love you to click that comment button and just tell me what you
think.

I will of course say thank you to those of you who have
joined my discussions and journey from Germany, Brazil, Slovenia, Slovakia,
Kenya, Taiwan, Netherlands, Norway, France and Switzerland. Thank you all for joining me and for reading
my comments, now all I need is for you to join the discussions. So far almost
5,000 have joined me at some point thank you for that.

It is also interesting to see what you are all reading, and
the stats tell me that the most read Blog is the one put up in October 2009 on
the subject of woman, and I didn’t even write that one baa! It was written by my good friend Dan Wooding
of Assist News Service, he is a professional news hound so I guess I am happy
that you like to read his stuff. For those who like tit bits, he was also our
best man when we got married. Check out
his news service at www.assistnew.com it is worth the time. It also fun to note that my second most read
is the one entitled Beer and bandits which I posted in May 2010 does that tell
me something about you or about what I write about?

Venezuela

I like the fact that you are still reading those Blogs that
I posted some time ago, again thank for that.

I could go on and tell you which search engines and what
referring sites you use, but I won’t enough already. Just to say again thank you, hope you enjoy,
and most of all I hope together we can effect change for the better. Don’t
forget would love to hear from you.

Monday, 20 May 2013

I always feel sad when I come the end of my chance to talk with you. I hope you have found our
times together helpful, as I have chatted about the subject of leadership. I have
written a book on the subject and in it I cover many other areas that I haven’t had time
to talk to you about in this series. I looked through all
the subjects in my book, ‘Leadership and…’ to decide what
to share with you during this last talk, should I
tell you about decision makers or small
groups of people, or perhaps the platform? Goals? Work or loyalty? And I was very tempted by
the chapter on Solomon’s clothes, there’s one I wish I had time for right now, but as I pondered it
became very clear what should I talk about during our final time
together. I decided it has to be
vision.

Scripture says that where there is no vision,
people perish. Now maybe it’s just the
people I mix with but there has been a bit of a backlash against vision. Maybe you are not aware of that and if not
don’t let it worry you. The thing is
that people, and I understand why they do, react against the fact that leaders want everyone to buy into their vision, and sometimes theyexhaust people in trying to see things achieved and the
vision reached, and why their vision anyway? Why not
mine?

Well here are some answers; firstly
do you have a vision? People regularly come and chat with me, seeking advice about
the direction their life is taking, or not, as the case may be, they may say
things like, ‘ I don’t have a vision, I really would like one, what should I do?’ I’m sorry but I have
a stock answer which is, ‘get on board someone else’s vision!’ Don’t forget that scripture says, without one people perish

Secondly as leaders, aren't we all called to lead? Yeswe are,
but we are also called to follow. Scripture states
that we should be under authority, andif we are all practicing servant leadership thenthings will work really
well. I would also hope that as a leader you are following a vision God has given you, one that reflects what
Jesus would say, ‘I must be about my Father’s business.’Or let’s put it another way,
the Father’s vision is what I plan to accomplish.

So let’s think again about those who
have no vision, if it is the Father’s vision that
your leader is following, why not get on board? A
key point to bear in mind is that the Father’s vision is broad enough to
encompass other visions. For the church
community to function smoothly and effectively, you will all be following a God
given vision but that does not eliminate the possibility that God can also give
you a vision, at which point you should be able to say to the leadership, ‘ hey I really
want to do this and accomplish what I believe God has shown me,’ and if we are all under authority, in close relationship with the Father and
his purposes, it should be equally possible for the
leaders to say, ‘That’s great! That extends the vision in this area and
makes things work better in that area. How fantastic that we
are going in the same direction.’ Often
when we cannot respond in that way, then perhaps what is wrong is that the vision is
too small.

In many ways God has given us the broader
visions, outliningthem several times in scripture.He wants us to catch His vision, the top priority he give us is to ‘seek FIRST the Kingdom of God Then we are told, ‘tell the good news.’ I know you know it, but let me say it again, the
good news is about a person and that person is Jesus. He is the good news. We are told to,
‘tell it in Jerusalem, in Samaria
and to the uttermost parts of the world.’That’s a big job, a
big vision isn't it?

Finally we are told to, ‘make
disciples of the nations.’ I think
that gives most of us enough to do for the rest of our lives don’t you?

A vision keeps you fresh; it
actually keeps you alive and moving forward. I have a little saying that some puzzle over;
it goes like this ‘the worst enemy of better is very good.’ The thing is that
when things are bad you can usually see that there is a need
for some vision to make them better, but when things are going well that can put you in the
danger zone.Unless you are alert, you could end up settling down and
dying off. Don’t do it! We have not arrived; the kingdom has not yet
come, there are still dreams to dream and a vision
to have.

Get a vision of leading, forging ahead,
keeping going and kingdom seeking! If you haven’t got one then get on board with someone who has. There is a promised land to be possessed,there is a Kingdom to be
found and we have the power to bring it to earth if we know our God, that’s why he told us to pray and work, ‘your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Happy seeking! Thank you for listening God bless you as you dream and vision His
plans.

Friday, 19 April 2013

I hope you have remembered what I said at the beginning of
this series which was that all of us are called to be leaders; or to put it in Bible language, we areprophet’s priest and kings.

Alongside
this universal calling there are always several people in each church
community who take special responsibility for others, and that brings with it all
sorts of pressures. One of those pressures is the problem of being right. I guess you have all seen that joke that sometimes sits on a manager’s desk which says, ‘Rule
number one. The boss is always right’. ‘Rule
numbers two, if the boss is wrong, refer to rule number one’. The reality is that being in leadership does
not always mean that you are right.

That in itself presents another pressure, one of our culture
and our age. Generally people do not like or expect anyone in leadership to be wrong. Just watch what happens when a politician
tries to admit to being wrong and misses the mark; the response is rarely, ‘that’s
great they have admitted they
are wrong, lets forgive them and move on’. Usually it is quite the reverseimmediately there is a flurry of frantic digging in
order to reveal further failings and we demand they
resign, no that’s not enough, die, andeven that is not enough, we
want to dance on atheir grave.

Coupled with the possibility of being
wrong, there is also the
cultural pressure
whereby we want our leaders to know the answer to everything. I am a leader, and sometimes I
am wrong and sometimes I do not know the answer and what is worse sometimes I can see a
problem, which I am sure everyone else can see. I know this because they come and tell
me,often in
conspiratorial tones,
‘there is a problem’. I know there is problem and I didn’t need anyone
to tell me what I already
know, what I need
is for someone to give me an answer to the problem, as I don’t have one.

So what can
we do? Firstly I think
that it is very helpful to admit we are wrong as quickly as possible and learn to put up with people’s reactions and
disappointment. Weshould also look
for help both from God and our fellow travellers; perhaps when they see us admit that we
are wrong it might encourage them in their own struggle to get
things right.

Secondly
all of us need to treat those who lead us with respect when they say that they
do not have an answer to some particular conundrum; maybe accepting and believing that they simply do not know.

Thirdly,
and this is a hard one, I am
convinced we need to learn to say ‘I am sorry,’ that can be a
great help to all. But isn’t it a hard word to use?

Let me finish by telling you a positive story to illustrate
what I mean.

For more
than thirty yearsI have been involved in running
independent Christian Schools and
in two of them I hold the role of principal. A while ago a young lady of around
twelve years old was brought to my office for some misdemeanour, it was my job to
tell her off;
I did so, very
sternly and the young lady ended up with tears running down her cheeks. She
left my office very, very subdued and quiet, so I thought I had
down my job well. The
next day, to my horror, I discovered that I had reprimanded a
totally innocent person, who was
in no way guilty of any wrongdoing. What should I do? I asked a member of staff to find the young
lady and bring her to my
office as quickly as possible. She
walked in with fear in her face, I asked her to sit down and she did so, very carefully, her hands folded meekly in her lap. I explained to her that on the previous day I had made a
terrible mistake when I told
her off and I said I wanted to apologise. I looked into her
fearful eyes and said, ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me’. The
transformation was instantaneous, the fear disappearedand the young lady
burst into the largest smile I have ever seen, I was afraid that her face would
come apart if
she smiled any more.

Suffice
to say she went away very happy, and I must admit that I also felt good. Being
wrong and saying sorry really made my day and I think it made her day too. I am pretty certain that
the story got repeated many times to her schoolmate’s.

Did being wrong in that case make me a lesser person? I don’t think so; I think dealing with being
wrong after the event in the right way made a positive difference don’t you? Unlike how some of us react to our fallible politicians
she didn’t want to kill me, it
was just the reverse,I think she thought she
had a received
a fantastic present. Don’t kill people for being wrong, be like our God; full
of grace and forgiveness.

Saturday, 30 March 2013

I
have been looking at leadership in these short talks in the context of those
who are followers of Jesus. However I
hope that I haven’t give the
impression that these skills of servant
leadership are only relevant and
appropriate to the church community. If I have given that impression let
my try and correct that today.

I
have spent a large chunk of my life establishing some independent schools, we
have two in North London, one in Sri Lanka and one in Nakuru, Kenya. When
people ask me what is their purpose, I answer that I
am interested in affecting the thinking of young students, but also I want to
produce tomorrow’s national and international leaders.

I
hope you don’t think what I say next is too strange, but even if you do, I
believe it to be so. If you really are a follower of Jesus, and you are walking
with him then certain things will apply. First of all you are in touch
with wisdom, I do not believe that wisdom comes from any other source but from
God, he is the source of wisdom. Knowledge on the other hand can come from a
variety of sources. If you are a follower of Jesus then you should have a
world view that gives great credibility to any leadership role
into which you enter. Followers of Jesus also have a clear perspective about the future,
where it’s all going, why we are here and what is our human purpose is.
You are also in touch with the ultimate law giver, ruler and therefore
understand what it means to have a moral base.
Scripture talks about our thinking producing who and what we are, and that can,
should and does reflect into the wider culture locally,
nationally and internationally.

I
learned a lot of my leadership skills as a follower of Jesus rather than from
management training, or other training schemes.But I have discovered that it is very easy to transfer
those skills into what we sometimes call the secular
world, although I don’t like the
word secular, as I know that the Kingdom of God can be found in every area of
life and do not like the false dichotomy of secular
and spiritual. I have been able to use the leadership
skills obtained as a follower of Jesus in social service, education andbusiness to name but a few.

Just
the other day I was listening to a discussion about an emerging economy and
they were talking about how the country could be improved by business, by
politics, and by new laws. But there was an element
that was missing from the debate, there was no
mention of how people think, the philosophy of a nation if you
will. In the UK, whilst I would never want to call us or think of us as a
Christian nation we do have a strong Christian heritage which can be seen in
our laws and the way the country works. This heritage
is, I believe, currently being rapidly squandered, but some of it is this is still there, which tends to make us generous and caring; and affect levels of honesty
and corruption. If you look at national
cultures in other parts of the world then you will see
clear differences to the UK culture, due to the
underlying philosophy, for some there is a lack of concern for others outside
of their own country, some place a low value on
human life and some have very corrupt systems.
Now I am sure business, law, politics and education
can all help those things if they are wrong, but ultimately you don’t really
change things unless you change the thinking and the underlying philosophy.

As
one American president once said, ‘if you educate an evil man who was stealing
from the railway, it doesn’t change his actions it just makes him clever, so
instead of stealing from the railway he steals the
whole system’. What we often see as requiring a
structural change actually needs a change of heart,
or from my point of view, Jesus style leadership in all areas of life. So
how about you, where do you lead?

Monday, 18 March 2013

Let’s be honest there are difficult people around aren’t
there? And there are people who claim
to be followers of Jesus who think we need to be nice to everyone. The problem with being nice is that sometimes
nice means, in modern parlance, untruthful.
When we are untruthful we need to ask the question are we really helping
the other person?

Let me illustrate
where I am going with this; Have you noticed how people who tell you they are
Christians sometimes say, and usually very loudly and firmly, ‘you need to
accept me as I am because God says he
accepts me just as I am and He tells us to come to him just as we are, so you
should do the same’. And that is the
problem with sound bite truth. Of course what they are saying is true, but it’s not the whole truth or the whole story,
but we so love those sound bites don’t we?
The truth is that God loves us
and calls us to come to Him as we are, but then he also calls us to change.
This is made clear in scriptures like, ‘be transformed by the renewing or the
changing of your mind’ or ‘he plans to conformus to the image of His
son Jesus’. These scriptures give us the clear understanding that although God
accepts us as we are it isn’t part of His plan to leave us as He finds us.

Can I be honest? Thank
you. Sometimes when people say, ‘love me as I am,’ I’m thinking, (but of course
I don’t say it), you really are horrible and you need to change!’ Then there are people who say, ‘do you know I
never have these problems at work or at my book club I only have them when I am
here in the church community.’ And the
first thing that goes through my head is, ‘Uh oh, they are not telling the
truth’. Perhaps they think they are, but actually they are not.

For many years I have run a school, and sometimes I have a parent
sitting in front of me saying ‘do you know I never had this problem with my
child in their last school.’ What they don’t realise is that I have a file on the child from the last school
describing the behaviour issues and can also read the problems that the staff
at my school are experiencing; and I know my staff! Sometimes, of course, people don’t realise
what they are doing, at other times, let’s be totally clear, they are not being
honest; they are trying to circumvent their own problems.

That leads me to my next issue with people, that of their
problems. There are those who want to dump their problems on others, especially
if those on who they are dumping have assumed any form of leadership role. What happens is this, someone will share their
problem with you, and because you care you really putyour mind
into it. After they have poured out their problems to you, they go home and
sleep soundly while you toss and turn and worry about their problem. It is not good to allow people to dump their
lives on you. We need to try and help people to find ways through difficult
passages in their lives, and be as helpful as possible, but ultimately it is
for them, to work out a resolution.

Scripture tells us that we are to work out our own salvation.
That, again, could be a sound bite but of course God is there working with
those who have problems, and, no doubt if you are caring leader you also will
be alongside them. But don’t allow people to make their lives your
responsibility. God wants us to grow up,
to be mature and workwith Him as we work through difficult periods in our life, and he
promises to turn them round and help us learn from them. Maturing us and changing our thinking.

Finally to help any of you listening who do lead, and go
through those terrible times when some person you have been trying to help
turns around and blames you for the problem that they have, even though the
problem was there before you even met them. Or they list the terrible problems
that they are having with you that sends you home feeling a complete and utter
failure and a really useless leader in fact a useless person. Here is my little formula which I hope might
help you.

Ask yourself, ‘do other people have this problem with me?’ If
the answer is yes then perhaps the critic is right and you do have a
problem. If the answer is no, and I have
to say it usually is no, then you need
to say to yourself, ‘well now as other people do not have this problem with me
then it is probably not my problem but
theirs.’

Then ask yourself, ‘in my observation of this person, do
they have a similar problem with other people that I know?’ if the answer is
yes, again it confirms what I have just said. It is not your problem it is
theirs. Often we end up beating
ourselves up when we should not do so simply because we haven’t thought through
the situation, we have just
reacted negatively to critisicm, and blamed ourselves for something that is not
our fault or our responsibility.

I hope today that I haven’t caused you to no longer want to
lead, or help those difficult or problematic people. God does love them; I just
don’t want you to live in condemnation. Happy
helping and be blessed.